The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art. Vehicles such as passenger cars typically employ a drink or cup holder either between passenger seats, on the center column, or in the inside door panel to hold a beverage container. While current drink holders have proven satisfactory for their purposes, each is associated with its share of limitations.
One limitation of current drink holders is that many are made of a rigid, inflexible material that is essentially, a “one size fits all” type of holder; there is no adjustment for different sizes of containers. Since this does not permit containers to be securely held in place within the drink holder, the container may tip over or fall out of the drink holder as a vehicle maneuvers along a road, such as around corners. This may not only spill a drink and create a liquid, even sticky, mess, but if the drink is particularly hot, a burn to a passenger, even a pet, may result. Another limitation of current drink holders is that liquid drinks intended to be kept hot or warm, are not able to be kept at a sufficiently high enough temperature; likewise, liquid drinks intended to be kept cool or cold, are not able to be kept at a sufficiently low enough temperature. Finally, many drink holders that may attempt to securely maintain a drink container do not easily accept or release the container from such holder. Instead, a user must either firmly and somewhat harshly push the drink container into the drink holder, and then tightly grip and pull the drink container from the holder. Either process may dent or damage the drink container.
What is needed then is a device that does not suffer from the above limitations. This, in turn, will provide a device that securely holds a drink container in a cup holder while permitting the liquid contents of the container to be maintained at either, a user-selectable hot or cold temperature that is independent of the vehicle cabin temperature. Finally, the device will easily accept and release the container from the drink holder.